The Task of This Translator - by Todd Hasak-Lowy (Paperback)

About the Book

The author captures the absurdity that often arises when very personal crises intersect with global issues such as ethnic violence, obesity, and the media in this collection of short stories.

Book Synopsis

Stylistically daring, morally perplexing, and outrageously funny, Todd Hasak-Lowy's The Task of This Translator marks the debut of a writer of extraordinary talent. In these seven stories, Hasak-Lowy captures the absurdity that often arises when very personal crises intersect with global issues such as ethnic violence, obesity, and the media.

A journalist sets out to write an investigative piece on a dieting company that uses bodyguards to protect overeaters from themselves but loses his bearings when he becomes a client and is paired up with a bodyguard of his own. In the coffee shop of Israel's Holocaust memorial museum, a stale pastry triggers a brawl between an American tourist and the Israeli cashier. A man misplaces his wallet shortly before a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan. An unwilling and mostly unqualified slacker finds himself cast into the role of translator for the bitter reunion of a family torn apart years earlier by unspecified brutality.

A standout story collection, The Task of This Translator is funny, intricate, and deeply human.

From the Back Cover

"If Hasak-Lowy were a juggler, he would be the kind who could juggle an elephant and an orange at the same time. Instead he is a writer whose stories combine the global with the personal in ways that are incisive, thought-provoking, smart and, most importantly, FUNNY."--Myla Goldberg, author of Bee Season
Stylistically daring, morally perplexing, and outrageously funny, Todd Hasak-Lowy's The Task of This Translator marks the debut of a writer of extraordinary talent. In these seven stories, Hasak-Lowy finds entry into daunting matters such as genocide and obesity through the absurd experiences of a series of unlikely protagonists.
A journalist sets out to write an investigative piece on a dieting company that uses bodyguards to protect overeaters from themselves, but loses his journalistic bearings when he becomes a client and is paired up with a bodyguard of his own. In the coffee shop of Israel's Holocaust memorial museum a stale pastry triggers a brawl between an American tourist and the Israeli cashier. An unwilling and mostly unqualified slacker finds himself cast into the role of translator for the bitter reunion of a family torn apart years earlier by unspecified brutality.
"Todd Hasak-Lowy's brilliant combination of cynicism and compassion gives his storytelling its unique power."--Etgar Keret, author of The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God
Todd Hasak-Lowy was born in Detroit. He is an assistant professor of modern Hebrew literature at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.

Review Quotes

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE TASK OF THIS TRANSLATOR
"These are inventive, delightful stories by a startling new talent, easy in their modernity, classic in their authoritative tone, and secretly fitted with deep structures of irony and pity."
-MICHAEL CHABON, author of THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY
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